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Death by Netflix?

Binge-watching has now joined a pantheon already occupied by fast food, alcohol, and sitting on couches: It is extremely popular, and in large amounts, it appears to be deadly.

First, the (sort of) good news: Americans no longer find the activity worthy of scorn. In a study by TiVo, only a third of respondents considered binge-watching “a negative term.” Last year, the figure was 53 percent. TiVo Chief Research Officer Jonathan Steuer somewhat gleefully explains the drop:

“Today, though, the menu of available television fare has expanded to include thousands of channels, original programming from broadcast, cable and over-the-top sources and year-round premieres. It is now literally impossible for viewers to see all the shows they enjoy when they are first broadcast, and there’s no ‘summer break’ when viewers can catch up. But thanks to the control over cable, broadcast and OTT content afforded by TiVo, and to the proliferation of streaming services like Netflix, binge-viewing has rapidly become common practice.”

TiVo also found that 69 percent of respondents had binged in the last month, and that the shows most binged-upon were “Breaking Bad” and “House of Cards.”

It may be “literally impossible” to consume all the TV that now exists without spending enormous blocks of time glued to your couch, and binge-watching may simply be a normal way of experiencing television now. But, writes Caitlin Dewey of The Washington Post: “Even all this mainstream social acceptance probably won’t change the core connotation of the word ‘binge.’” She explains:

“‘I felt like hell all day because I was up till 4:00 binge-watching season 2 of ‘Dexter.’’”

Which brings us to the bad news. A recent study of Spaniards’ TV habits found that those who watched three or more hours a day were twice as likely to die during the course of the research than those who watched less than an hour. Maggie Fox of NBC News reports:

“For every two extra hours of watching TV over and above one hour a day, the volunteers were 44 percent more likely to die from heart disease or stroke, 21 percent more likely to die of cancer and 55 percent more likely to die from something else, and that’s taking in account their age, sex, whether they smoked, whether they were obese and whether they ate a healthy, Mediterranean diet.”

That’s right — not even olive oil will save you.

As Ms. Fox notes, this study comes on the heels of research showing that sitting could be dangerous. However, she writes, “other studies have suggested that watching television lowers the metabolism than even sitting and doing nothing.” Basically, sitting is even worse for you if you have fun while doing it — minimize the risks by simply staring into space.

The news that binge-watching is both popular and fatal has, understandably, inspired concern in many quarters. At Uproxx, Danger Guerrero remarked on both the TiVo data and the Spanish study: “In the eyes of science, the television show about meth is just barely less hazardous to your health than meth itself.” Chris Harnick at E! offered a similar warning: “Walter White might kill you. At least it’s not with poison, a bike lock, a bomb or an automated machine gun in a trunk.”

No, he will kill you slowly, while you enjoy his gripping story with no thought for your impending demise.

All this might be an argument for looking down on binge-watching again, but that ship may have sailed. The popularity of bingeing may be affecting the way TV is made. “Orange Is the New Black” actress Laura Prepon told the BBC earlier this month: “The whole streaming thing is changing the way writers are writing television now. It’s basically a 13 hour-long movie.” She added, “The writers know they can take more time exploring certain characters and storylines because you’ll see the other characters in one or two hours.”

And binge-watching may be more rewarding for some viewers than spacing episodes out over weeks. At Huffington Post Canada, Devon Murphy writes, “When the last episode is fresh in your mind (because you just watched it, like, five minutes ago) you pick up on cues and clues from the director more easily, you notice themes emerge, and you’re more aware of directorial choices being made.”

Indeed, binge-watching may be more than just watching a bunch of episodes back to back. It may be an experience all its own, that many will be loathe to give up — even if, like so many fun things in life, it turns out to be bad for us.

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Op-Talk is your guide to today's debates and the variety of voices behind them. From pizza to politics (and the politics of pizza), we offer new ways of looking at what's exciting, troubling, and inspiring.